The appearance of this term was an expression of ninteenth-century asylum medicine's interest in enlarging the definition of insanity.

The sitophobe usually said eating was too stressful or that she had no appetite. Unlike with anorexia mirabilis, the girl claimed no special powers. Not eating was simply her special accomplishment and her way pf extracting sympathy and exerting power over people. The victims were described as having a "willful compulsion to starve."